Trump's economic magic trick is coming undone

Promises of revitalisation and a better life hit by his tariff and immigration policies

- Jamelle Bouie

The essence of US President Donald Trump’s pitch to the American people in 2024 was simple: They could have it both ways.

They could have a powerful, revitalised economy and “mass deportations now”.

They could build new factories and take manufacturing jobs back from foreign competitors as well as expel every person who, in their view, did not belong in the United States.

They could live in a “golden age” of plenty — and seal it away from others outside the country with a closed, hardened border.

Mr Trump told Americans that there were no trade-offs.

As the saying goes, they could have their cake and eat it too.

Even better, eating the cake would, on its own, produce more cake — no need for new ingredients or the skill, time and labour necessary to make something new.

In reality, this was a fantasy. Americans could have a strong, growing economy, which requires immigration to bring in new people and fill demand for labour, or they could finance a deportation force and close the border to everyone but a small, select few.

It was a binary choice. Theirs could be an open society or a closed one, but there was no way to get the benefits of the former with the methods of the latter.

Millions of Americans embraced the fantasy.

Now, about eight months into Mr Trump’s second term, the reality of the situation is inescapable.

As promised, he began a campaign of mass deportation.

US cities are crawling with masked federal agents, snatching anyone who looks “illegal” to them ~ a bit of racial profiling that has, for now, been sanctioned by the US Supreme Court.

The jobs, however, have not arrived.

There are fewer manufacturing jobs than there were in 2024, thanks in part to Mr Trump’s tariffs and, well, his immigration policies.